As will be described herein, it is not easy to set up systems permitting sellers of food products to be able to provide information about the kosher status of foods to consumers. It is helpful to provide some background about known ways to try to provide such information.
“You shall not seethe a calf in its mother's milk.” This statement in the Torah is one of several which represent the historical origins of definitions permitting an observant Jew to determine whether a food is kosher. An observant Jew will thus avoid mixing meat and milk in a meal, and will likewise avoid any food product in which meat and milk have been mixed. In a meal containing meat (a “meat meal”) it is necessary to avoid products containing milk. In a meal containing milk (a “milk meal”) it is necessary to avoid products containing meat. It will be appreciated that for manufactured products, labeling is extremely important. A consumer considering purchasing a product containing milk ingredients will want to know, with extremely high confidence, that the product does not contain meat ingredients, and vice versa. The consumer considering purchasing goods to be consumed during Passover will want to know, with similarly high confidence, that the product is free from leaven. It is particularly convenient to know which products are free from both milk and meat ingredients, since such products (called “pareve”) may be freely included in a meat meal or a milk meal. The Torah also defines certain things (e.g. beef that has not been properly slaughtered and treated) which are not to be eaten at all.
Determining whether a product is kosher thus requires paying extremely close attention to the ingredients of which the product is made. In addition, it will be appreciated that there are several kosher qualities that are of interest, such as whether a product is pareve, or kosher for Passover, or “kosher dairy” (meaning that it is kosher but may not be mixed with meat). This, too, requires paying close attention to the ingredients of which the product is made. But these determinations also require paying close attention to the other ingredients used elsewhere in a manufacturing facility, for example for the manufacture of other products. Close attention must also be paid to the manner in which ingredients and finished products are packaged and transported.
In a simpler world, a consumer might personally have knowledge permitting the consumer to have high confidence in a seller's description of a product, perhaps being personally acquainted with the maker of the product and with the makers of the ingredients that went into the product. In today's globalized world, makers of products are distant from the purchasers of the products, and are also distant from the makers of the ingredients used to make the products. It is unrealistic for any single consumer to expect to be able to have personal knowledge permitting a high confidence as to the kosher qualities of products to be purchased.
Fortunately for the consumer who wishes to know the kosher status of particular products to be purchased, there are certification agencies which do the work of paying close attention to ingredient lists and ingredients and the many other things that permit a consumer to have a high level of confidence as to the kosher status. The certification agencies certify the status of particular products, and they permit the use of markings which consumers can recognize and use in making their product selections.
Let us suppose that a food manufacturer decides that it wants to sell and market a product as kosher. Such a decision is typically motivated by customer demand. For example, the manufacturer may have done market research which suggests that a product can be better marked if it is kosher. In practical terms a consumer who wishes to be confident that a product marked as kosher really is kosher will look for a marking indicating that a certification agency has certified the kosher status of the product.
Potential customers may well differ from one to the next in the kosher requirements they impose upon their product purchasing choices. As a related matter, certification agencies may differ from each other in the requirements they impose to certify a particular type of product as kosher. One potential customer may choose only to purchase products certified by a particular certification agency, while another may be willing to purchase products certified by any of several certification agencies.
A manufacturer of a kosher product necessarily needs to use kosher ingredients. A manufacturer of an ingredient who wishes to be able to sell the ingredient to a manufacturer of a kosher product will need to be able to provide assurance to its customer that the ingredient is kosher.
Many manufacturers have relationships with particular certification agencies. But a first step for a manufacturer that has not previously had products certified as kosher will be to contact a certification agency. A manufacturer whose interest is in selling ingredients to a customer manufacturer (who sell kosher products) may become acquainted with a certification agency because it certifies the customer's products. A manufacturer of consumer products that is interested in obtaining kosher certification for its products may become acquainted with a certification agency because it certifies the kosher status of one of the manufacturer's ingredients.
A certification agency will typically only certify products after a physical inspection of the manufacturing facility or facilities involved. The agency must necessarily keep track of certain information about the manufacturer, and must inspect the facilities at regular intervals to ascertain that the information is correct. Such information includes the product to be certified, the ingredients used to make the product, and the production methods used. In addition, it is necessary to know what other products and ingredients are used on the same equipment, and which facilities are used to make the products. It will be appreciated that this means keeping track of which ingredients are used in which product and the process of producing each product.
Such information is collected and evaluated. It is then made available to a field representative who can inspect the facility to determine that the information presented is accurate and that the facility is in compliance with the agency's requirements. Field representatives are generally hired by the agency to visit the manufacturers' facilities. The field representative may be a Rabbi (generally an independent contractor) who inspects facilities on behalf of a certification agency. This person is often referred to as a Mashgiach or the plural Mashgichim.
Ingredients must, of course, be approved as part of the approval process for a product. Such approval may be based on any of several factors. The most common factor is a kosher certificate provided by the supplier of the ingredient. The kosher certificate is issued by a certification agency for the ingredient. Importantly, it often happens that the certification agency certifying the kosher status of the ingredient is not the same as the certification agency certifying the kosher status of the product. Each certification agency will evaluate the ingredient based on its kosher certification and its suitability to that facility.
Other ways of evaluating an ingredient may include general knowledge that the type of ingredient does not pose a kosher problem. Depending on the certification agency, an ingredient may be evaluated based on knowledge from the package labeling or from other sources, without requiring a kosher certificate for the ingredient
After a favorable evaluation the product will be certified to be kosher. The certification agency provides a letter (referred to herein as a kosher certificate) attesting to the product's kosher status. The certification agency may also give permission to the manufacturer to print the agency's symbol on the label.
Throughout the period of certification the certification agency must, of course, be kept informed about any changes or additions to ingredients, formulas and production methods that affect the certified products. In addition, it is routine to have requests to add new certified products from time to time.
The manufacturer and the certification agency will typically have a relationship that lasts a year and that is routinely renewed. Each kosher certificate has an expiration date, and issuance of a new kosher certificate to replace the expired one is tied to continued inspections and continued provision of information about the product or products by the manufacturer to the certification agency. A kosher certificate will thus typically have an expiration a year after it has been issued.
Consider, then, what happens if a kosher certification for a product is based, in part, on a kosher certificate (for an ingredient) issued by a certification agency that is not the same as the agency certifying the product. As a general matter it may be expected that the kosher certificate for the ingredient will have an expiration date that is not the same as the expiration date of the kosher certificate for the product Thus, it is necessary to obtain updated certificates for the ingredients as they expire.
It will also be appreciated that in food manufacturing processes, there can be many companies involved in many different ways. One company may manufacture nothing at all, simply purchasing a product from someone else and affixing its own label on the product. Another may outsource the manufacturing of its product by essentially renting equipment owned by another company. Still other companies manufacture products that are to be labeled by others. In addition, there are specialized parts of the food service industry, such as restaurants, caterers, hotels and bakeries. Such specialized businesses are typically kosher-certified in their entirety, rather than for specific products.
A particular certification agency may find itself certifying at any location along these chains of production. This may mean that the certification agency must certify other parts, or arrange for certification of other parts. For example, if a certification agency is certifying someone who does not manufacture, but who instead purchases products and relabels them, the agency must necessarily enter into some arrangement with the actual manufacturer to ensure that the product is kosher. As another example, if a certification agency certifies products that are sold to others and relabeled by them, the agency must necessarily retain control of its symbol for those who relabel the product.
Decertification issues also arise. If a product is decertified, the labeling and kosher certificates must of course be appropriately terminated. If an ingredient is decertified, this should necessarily lead to decertification of products using that ingredient.
It will thus be appreciated that several categories of entities interact with each other in connection with kosher certification. There are the certification agencies, the field representatives, and the customers, which in this context include manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, and others in the chain of production.
Many prior-art systems for certifying products as kosher, and for accomplishing the other tasks discussed above, have been in used for a very long time. Such systems are, however, very cumbersome. They rely upon passing physical items such as kosher certificates from one entity to another. A report from a field representative typically must be filed on paper. A request for an approval for an ingredient change may well take a long time to be processed. Obtaining kosher certification for a new product may also take a long time. The processing of paperwork is expensive. It is not easy to generate all of the reports that one or another of the entities mentioned above might wish to be able to generate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,566 describes a method and apparatus for producing a catalog. Unfortunately, the described method and apparatus discard kosher-related information. That method and apparatus have a goal of increasing the chance that only one item number is assigned to a product, even if, for example, the composition of the specific item is changed. For example, the manufacture of Coca-Cola soda is generally the same throughout the year. Thus, this soda may be given a first UPC number. However, during the Passover season, the manufacturing ingredients and/or procedures of the soda differs. Thus, the Kosher for Passover soda may be given a second UPC number. The invention of U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,566 tries to ensures that both types of Coca-Cola soda will be assigned the same item number in the produced catalog. Such a catalog is of no help to a customer who wishes to be fully informed as to the kosher status of a product.
It would be extremely helpful if there could be provided a system which provided improvements in kind, not merely in degree, with respect to prior-art systems. Merely converting flow of physical paper to electronic communications would, of course, offer potential efficiencies. But it would be helpful to devise systems and apparatus which would do much more than merely convert paper flow to computer communications. For example, it would be helpful to devise systems and apparatus which would not only accommodate kosher certificates from different certification agencies but which would wholly eliminate aspects of prior-art systems that take time and lead to delays and inefficiencies.